The LP relationship at Arrowpoint Properties begins with a simple question: how badly does the person managing your capital want to be there? In early 2003, Dave Lamattina answered that question by driving a two-wheel drive sedan through a February blizzard to keep a meeting with a North Shore real estate family who had no obligation to see him. That drive did not produce a deal. It produced something more durable - a relationship that, 22 years later, still shapes how Arrowpoint operates and who runs it.
Key Takeaways
- Commitment is observable before a deal is signed. The drive through the blizzard was not a transaction - it was a signal. Dick Goldberg noticed it. It set the tone for everything that followed.
- The mentor relationship became the operating partnership. Dick Goldberg introduced Dave to his son Jay, who came back from a mezzanine fund in Chicago around 2009-2010. Jay started as an investor, then became managing partner.
- 22 years in the same market is a form of commitment too. Every property is within 30 minutes of the office. Dave can put eyes on a maintenance issue without getting on a plane. That proximity is a choice, made repeatedly.
- The track record reflects the approach. 32% average net IRR, 2.50x equity multiple across realized deals. No capital loss. No capital calls. The numbers are what sustained commitment produces.
I drove up to his office in a blizzard in a two-wheel drive sedan. He couldn't believe I showed up. He said, this kid must be motivated. I got all excited, and that really piqued my interest. That was 2003. - Dave Lamattina, Founder and CEO, Arrowpoint Properties
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A Meeting in a Blizzard
Dave Lamattina met Dick Goldberg by chance, at a food court, through a cousin who happened to bring them together. Goldberg was a well-known name on the North Shore - a multigenerational real estate family with multifamily and commercial holdings going back decades. When Dave mentioned he was interested in real estate, Goldberg took Dave under his wing and invited him up to the office the following Friday to look at properties and talk through the business.
The following Friday, there was a blizzard. Dave drove up anyway, in a two-wheel drive sedan, through the snow. Goldberg could not believe he showed up. They got in Goldberg's pickup truck and drove around the North Shore, Goldberg pointing out properties - that one bought in 1972, that one in the family since 1975. Dave came back with his interest fully converted to conviction.
The lesson Goldberg drew from that day was not complicated: the kid is motivated. Motivation is what separates the people who stay in this business from the ones who do not. In a market as demanding as workforce multifamily - aging buildings, compressed margins, tenant turnover, relentless maintenance - motivation is not optional. It is the operating condition.
What That Commitment Looks Like 22 Years Later
Dave has been acquiring and operating multifamily in the Merrimack Valley since 2009. Every asset in the portfolio is within 30 minutes of the Lawrence office. He drives to properties himself. He is on site for every major renovation project. When something goes wrong at a building, he can be there the same day.
That is a function of deliberate geographic concentration. Arrowpoint has stayed in one market for 22 years because staying is what lets you know a market cold: what buildings are worth, what things cost, what the tenant profile looks like before you walk in the door. The proximity principle is a knowledge rule, not a mileage rule. It means the person managing investor capital is never more than 30 minutes from the assets that capital is invested in.
Most sponsors describe this as a competitive advantage. Dave describes it as the only way he knows how to operate. "We know this market," he says. "I've been here for over 20 years. I know what things are worth. I know what things cost. I know the tenant. I know what to expect before I walk in the door." That knowledge is not transferable to a new geography. It is the product of 22 years of staying.
The Relationship That Built the Partnership
Dick Goldberg did not just introduce Dave to the North Shore real estate world. He introduced him to Jay Goldberg, his son, who came back from Chicago around 2009 or 2010 after working at a mezzanine fund. Dick made the introduction. Dave and Jay hit it off immediately.
Jay started by investing in the first few Arrowpoint deals. Over time, the relationship evolved. He and Dave began to leverage their combined relationships and connections, and Jay became an official partner - managing partner today. The Goldberg family, which started as a mentor relationship on a snowy Friday morning in the early 2000s, is now embedded in the operating structure of the firm.
Dick Goldberg is still around. Dave saw him recently. "He really is like family," he said. That is a description of how Arrowpoint was actually built - through relationships that started with showing up when it would have been easier not to.
Why This Matters to Investors
Investors in Arrowpoint deals are not investing in a platform. They are investing in a concentrated operator with a 22-year track record in one geography, run by two partners who have been working together for more than a decade and who built their relationship through the same mentor. That continuity is the mechanism that produces consistent returns to investors.
Across 26 syndications, Arrowpoint has never lost investor capital and has never issued a capital call – and the only time a distribution was missed was at the beginning of COVID when no-one knew where the pandemic was going to go and Dave wanted to preserve some reserves.
The average net IRR across realized deals is 32%, with a 2.50x equity multiple. Those numbers are the output of an operator who stayed in one place, kept his team tight, and treated investor capital the way he treated that drive through the blizzard - as something worth showing up for, regardless of conditions.
The blizzard test is not a formal evaluation, of course, it is a standard - for how Dave approaches every deal, every communication, every quarter. The investors who have been with Arrowpoint for 10 years or more understand this intuitively. It is why they came back, and why they referred their colleagues and family members into subsequent deals. Full detail on the LP relationship at Arrowpoint is in The LP Relationship at Arrowpoint.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long has Dave Lamattina been operating in the Merrimack Valley?
Dave has been acquiring and managing multifamily in the Merrimack Valley for over 22 years. He started with a single building around the corner from the current Lawrence office, brought his father in as his first investor, and has operated continuously in the same market for over two decades. Every asset in the current portfolio is within 30 minutes of the office.
Who is Jay Goldberg and how did he become managing partner?
Jay Goldberg is the son of Dick Goldberg, the North Shore real estate family that became Dave's early mentor. Jay came back from Chicago around 2009-2010, where he had been working at a mezzanine fund. Dick introduced him to Dave. Jay started as an investor in the early Arrowpoint deals, and the relationship evolved into a full operating partnership. He is managing partner today.
Why has Arrowpoint stayed in the Merrimack Valley rather than expanding to other markets?
22 years in one market produces knowledge that cannot be replicated anywhere else. Dave knows what buildings are worth, what renovation costs, what tenants earn, and what to expect from a property before walking in the door. That knowledge is the edge. Expanding to markets where Arrowpoint does not have that depth would mean operating without it - which is precisely the situation that produces bad outcomes for investors.
What is the connection between the mentor relationship and how Arrowpoint treats investors?
Dick Goldberg's core lesson was staying power - the ability to outlast downturns and remain in the game when others cannot. That philosophy runs through everything Arrowpoint does: conservative debt, no capital calls, fixed-rate agency financing, underwriting that assumes conditions get worse rather than better. The mentor relationship did not just produce the partnership with Jay Goldberg. It produced the operating philosophy that has protected investor capital across 22 years and multiple market cycles.
Learn More
For more on Arrowpoint's investment approach and LP relationship, see The LP Relationship at Arrowpoint and How to Invest in Real Estate Syndications with Arrowpoint.
David Lamattina
President & CEO
About Dave Lamattina
Dave Lamattina is the founder and CEO of Arrowpoint Properties, a vertically integrated multifamily owner-operator based in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He has been acquiring and operating multifamily assets in the Merrimack Valley for over 22 years, with 1,100+ units acquired and exited and a current portfolio of approximately 850 units valued at around $230 million. Arrowpoint has completed 26 syndications with an average net IRR of 32% and a 2.50x equity multiple.
